ACU welcomes NDSU to open 2022 campaign

ABILENE – Welcome back, baseball. It's good to see you again. The 2022 ACU baseball season returns this weekend with a bang, as the defending Southland Conference champions take the diamond against a reigning 2021 regional qualifier, North Dakota State. The new season begins with a four-game series at beautiful Crutcher Scott Field, opening up on Friday, Feb. 18 with a single game, a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 19, and a single game to close the weekend on Sunday, Feb. 20. It all gets underway at 4:05 p.m. Friday afternoon.

FOLLOW THE SERIES

SERIES HISTORY

ACU leads the series 3-0 all-time. The lone series took place in Abilene in 2017, with the 'Cats sweeping the Bison. The last game was a 5-3 victory for ACU. It is the first series between the schools since then. NDSU resides in the Summit League, while ACU enters its first year in the WAC.

THE PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS

Game 1: RHP Tyler Morgan (0-0, 0.0 ERA) vs. LHP Max Loven (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Game 2: RHP Breck Eichelberger (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Cade Feeney (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Game 3: LHP Adam Stephenson (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Evan Sankey (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Game 4: RHP Genner Cervantes (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. TBD (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

ACU STORYLINES

• WHO'S BACK?: ACU returns 26 players from the championship roster from a year ago, including all nine starters in the batting order.
  • Head Coach Rick McCarty: “We are excited about returning the core group of our offense, defense, and pitching staff,” said head coach Rick McCarty. "The majority of this group has been together for several years and have developed in our program, while playing early in their collegiate career. We hope they will be able to pull from their past experiences and continue to raise the bar for our program in 2022."
• PITCHING: The Wildcats retain three of their four weekend starters in Tyler Morgan, Adam Stephenson, and Genner Cervantes, and added a ton of depth and bullpen help as well.
  • Head Coach Rick McCarty: "We have added several pieces to our pitching staff that will compliment the pitchers returning from last year's championship team. We like the overall athleticism and depth of this group. We have a good mix of velocity, spin, and pitchability.  I am excited to see how the roles play out over the next few weeks, before we begin conference play."
• SO MUCH OFFENSE: ACU's bats are back and better than ever. The Wildcats hit .297 / .397 / .457 last year, and the individual leaders including Mitchell Dickson (.383 / .465 / .495), Colton Eager (.342 / .421 / .604), Tommy Cruz (.335 / .452 / .421), Grayson Tatrow (.325 / .421 / .560), and Miller Ladusau (.322 / .383 / .494) really led the strongest unit of the team.
  • Head Coach Rick McCarty: "Offensively, we return 90 percent of our at bats from 2021. We feel like we have a chance to put together a dynamic offensive group with some length in our lineup. There is a healthy balance of speed, power, bat to ball, and zone discipline. Our schedule will be challenging, but our guys are looking forward to competing against some of the best pitching staffs in the country." 
• DEFENSE: The defensive alignment will look very similar to that of 2021, with a few additional key pieces added by the coaching staff.
  • Head Coach Rick McCarty: "Defensively, there should be a lot of familiar faces our fans will recognize, as each of our starters were underclassmen last year. We have added some athleticism throughout the infield, outfield, and behind the plate. I expect several of those guys to push and wouldn't be surprised if we have multiple options throughout the field to match up defensively."
• PRESEASON POLLS: ACU was picked to win the WAC's southwest division, and Colton Eager was named the preseason player of the year in the league. Grayson Tatrow and Tommy Cruz were also selected to the preseason all-WAC team. Eager was the Southland Conference hitter of the year last season, while Tatrow was the newcomer of the year in 2021. Cruz earned third team all-conference honors last spring.
• WELCOME HOME: ACU opens with 11 of their first 12 games at the friendly confines of Crutcher Scott Field. The schedule opens with 2021 regional qualifier NDSU, and includes midweek games with Air Forces, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, as well as future WAC opponents UIW and UT Arlington.

SCOUTING NORTH DAKOTA STATE

• NDSU finished 42-19 a year ago, including a 20-11 record in the Summit. The Bison won the Summit Tournament, topping Oral Roberts to clinch its spot in the regional. The Bison went 1-2 in the Stanford regional, with a win over Nevada, 6-1, and losses to Stanford and UC Irvine.
• The Bison return all of their pitchers from last spring; it is a group that posted a 4.93 team ERA with a 2.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
• NDSU was picked second in the Summit preseason poll. The Bison's school-record 42 victories ended with the first NCAA Regional win in the school's Division I era.
• Infielder Peter Brookshaw and left-hander Max Loven were tabbed as preseason players to watch in the Summit this year.

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